I often wondered why so many of my Japanese friends were obsessive about sharing pictures of what they ate that day via their mobile blogs and now I know - they miss the social context of eating. Eating is and always will be a social activity that forms both the basis of cultural identity and the first bastion of resistance against the onslaught of flavorless efficiency.

Yet, given all these material benefits why is it that a recent OECD survey available on Nationmaster ranked Japan near the bottom of all industrialized countries in terms of happiness? For a country long upheld in the eyes of “The West” as the pinnacle of social living, the next generation of Japanese youth lives very much alone. This is the disconnected generation. Not some hyperconnected, always-on communal hive of “digital natives” but lonely teenagers and 20-somethings who exist off the real social grid. Everyone is friendly but only a few are real friends. They come in search of opportunity...

Growing a brand today is an act of faith; you are the crazy one, the marketing manager or head of product that sees things differently. You know this isn’t about selling stuff but building those roads, train tracks and vapor trails. You know this isn’t about being liked by the many but being loved by the few. But they don’t see the green shoots they want results now. You know nothing will change overnight. Faith to say “no” to what doesn’t matter requires confidence and it’s why I wrote this book - to give you the ammunition to fight that corner internally whether you’re boring...

From space, what stands as monument to our collective achievements? Here on Earth our media and representative politicians warn their people of societal breakdown and the erosion of our collective spirit. Alien observers (and a few fortunate astronauts) would disagree. Astronaut logs reveal a truer nature of the human race. Distance provides a unique perspective. The most visible monuments to the sum of our race’s achievements aren’t walls and artifacts of division and control but airports, roads, railway lines, aircraft vapor trails and seafaring freight. These are symbols of dialogue and...